Printing vs Plotting; long standing issues

Long time ago when starting with NX we couldn't find a way to use "printing" to scale. Seemed impossible to get this done with "printing and the Windows Printer Drivers.

So we went the "Plotting" way using the SDI plotting routine. After 2 - 3 day of headaches it finally worked. A few versions and years later we upgraded to a laserprinter. Again several phone calls to GTAC to get that printer to do what we want. Still all succesfull.

But now we want to make double-sided prints... And that's something we can't do with "plotting"

We probably could with "printing" but then we can't have scaled prints...

Re: Printing vs Plotting; long standing issues

I've never tried to scale plots to be accurate. (I'm assuming you are trying to get a 100.00 mm long line to be exactly 100.00mm long on the paper?)

The plot is just a picture. Here we typically plot to all "B" size paper (no matter what the original drawing sheet size, although "A" size drawing will be plotted to "A" size paper). Particularly as paper shrinks/expands with humidity and temperature.

I imagine a lot of companies are similar. Maybe it would be useful to set up a poll to see how many people actually try to plot to scale?

You could always try exporting a PDF and then printing from Adobe or whatever.

Ken Akerboom Sr CAx Systems Engr, Moog, Inc.

Production: NX10.0.3.5 MP16/TC11.2I'd rather be e-steamed than e-diseaseled

Re: Printing vs Plotting; long standing issues

At one point in my past, thru trial and error we came up with a print scale for an A, and a B size sheet, so we could "print" to scale. Problem is a driver change, version change, or new printer would put us back to square 1. I gave that up, and started to figure out how to "plot" to a printer, which has been much more stable in my opinion. Biggest obstacle now is getting new users to hit plot instead of print, so they don't come back to me with a stack of prints, wondering why they aren't to scale.

Re: Printing vs Plotting; long standing issues

We are the silent minority in this paperless world. I work in a job shop where I never know whats going to be thrown at me next.

A lot of times a "to scale" section or flat blank printed on on letter or tabloid is good enough to get the job done.

The tolerance on my plotter isn't good enough to do larger parts or patterns outright , over say 1500mm it'll grow 12mm but if I draw a 100mm grid on it the pattern makers and glue up people and get it close enough.

I've tried different papers, HP says its in tolerance for the designjet 800.

Re: Printing vs Plotting; long standing issues

One option that might work for you is to try using DWG TrueView from Autodesk. It's a free download and allows you to open and view/print AutoCAD drawings. The only risk is that it won't let you change the scale of the drawing first if required. That won't likely be an issue if you're working in a consistent unit base and first ensure that your NX views are scaled 1:1, etc. I haven't tried this approach myself since I have full AutoCAD.

For us, our most common drawing view scale is 1:4 on C size paper. However, NX exports the drawing to DWG format in millimeters (since all our parts are metric), but in my AutoCAD, everything is configured for inches, so I have to scale the drawing first. You may not have to if you if you plan accordingly.